Oakdale Week 2

View from Observation Point, Wildcat Mountain State Park

Elroy-Sparta State Trail at Kendall, WI

We've made it through the rains and took some day trips since we last posted.  First up was a planned walk on the Elroy- Sparta State Trail from Kendall, WI up to one of the tunnels and back.  Downed trees cut that walk short, but we had a nice lunch at the Dorset Valley School Restaurant.

Next up was a visit to Wildcat Mountain State Park.  We originally went to the area for just a drive by the park.  Ended up staying awhile and walking a portion of the Old Settler's Trail.

Following that was a ride along the "400" State Trail from Elroy down past Wonewoc, WI and return.   Buggy ride, muddy in places, but we got our ride in.  As you can see in one of the pictures, below, water was high in the area from all the rains.  Walk-in camping became swim-in camping.

On another day trip, we drove west over to La Crosse, WI and walked along the Mississippi River and ate at the The Water Front Restaurant.  Good food and nice walking.  Though the pictures, below, show a cloudy day, we did get some sun in the afternoon which made for some pretty weather while walking along the river.

Walk-in camping...sure.

On Tuesday, we drove over to Sparta, WI to ride the La Crosse River State Trail, but rain was too close and moving east.  We took the better part of valor and passed on the bicycle ride & came back.  We ended up taking Tuesday & Wednesday off as rain days.

Today we went back to and completed that bicycle ride.  We rode about ten miles west from Sparta to the Bangor/West Salem area and returned.  Nice ride today as humidity was lower and we had nice temps for riding.

Sculptures along the Mississippi River at La Crosse, WI

We've still got a few days in the area.  Not sure what Donna's got planned.  Another bicycle ride or two, I'm sure.

If all goes well, we move down to Madison, WI on Monday.  It's a short trip - only an hour and a half over there.  Those drives are nice, but we do run into issues from time-to-time due to check-out/check-in times where you arrive too early at the new destination.  I don't think this upcoming trip will be

Mississippi River, La Crosse, WI

an issue.  We just gotta leave late enough - hard to do when you get up and just twittle your thumbs for a couple of hours waiting to leave.  We're getting better at it, but...

One new experience for me.  As this is our first diesel vehicle that uses diesel exhaust fluid (DEF), we'd been filling the DEF tank using two and a half gallon jugs of DEF.  (I won't go into how strange it is to put a corrosive, man-made liquid in a vehicle to clean the air.)   Anyway, this week we got to experience filling from a DEF pump.  Not real different from a normal refueling - just remembering to put the blue nozzle in the blue tank.  Doing it incorrectly runs you about $9,000 - $12,000 to fix, so there's some anxiety there.  Anyway, new for me.  Be old hat in a year or two.

So that's it from us.  Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their summer.  Until next week, David

Oakdale, WI

 After a nice ride on Sunday on the Minnehaha Creek Trail in Minneapolis, we traveled Monday over to Oakdale, WI for a couple of weeks.  We're at the KOA.  This is usually a nice one or two night stop over for us as Tomah has a nice Walmart and cheese store.  We're here this time to bicycle ride some of the Wisconsin Rail Trails and ride along the Mississippi River.  Campgrounds around Lacrosse weren't really set up for longer stays, so I chose Oakdale as a spot with the idea we'd commute back to the Lacrosse area to ride the Mississippi River trails.

Turns out that Oakdale is a pretty good base to commute to the local state and country rail trails.  We're still learning where the trail heads are located, best places to park, etc.  Since we plan to be in Wisconsin for about six weeks, we bought annual state trail permits.  We're doing daily permits for the county trails.  Yep, there's fees for riding the rail trails.

Even though we're having to keep an eye out for thunderstorms, we've ridden the Omaha County Trail from Camp Douglas to Elroy and back - roughly a 25 mile round trip.  It's an older trail, paved probably in the 90s and takes you through one tunnel (top picture).

Elroy has a really nice trail center (second picture from the top) and is a trail head for the Omaha County Trail, the "400" Trail and one end of the Elroy-Sparta State Trail.

After a couple of days & nights of heavy rain & thunderstorms, we decided to walk a section of the Elroy-Sparta Trail at Kendall, WI up to one of the tunnels and return, today.  After that we'd eat lunch at the Dorset Valley School Restaurant.  Our walk was cut short as there were trees down on the trail - huge tree tops that we couldn't easily find a way through or around.  Otherwise, the trail was in relatively good condition (see picture at above) with a few muddy/flooded spots.  Lunch (cheeseburgers), raspberry pie and strawberry shortcake were pretty good at the restaurant, too.

We still got a week and a half to go here.  Still have a couple of days of dodging thunderstorms per the weather reporters.  And a lot of rail trail available to ride.

Well, that gets you up-to-date with us.  Thanks for checking on us.  Until next week, David

Apple Valley (St Paul), MN 2017

One of the many lakes at Lebanon Hills Regional Park

Apparently, tiger lilies thrive here

 After a couple of more bicycle rides along the Munger trail around Carlton, MN, we moved (Monday) down to the twin cities area.  We were told there were some nice bicycle trails to ride, so we thought we'd check them out.  We staying in the campground at Lebanon Hills Regional Park for the week.

So far we've ridden along the Schaar's Bluff/Silver Park near Hastings and Mississippi Blvd in St Paul.  Pictures here are of Lebanon Regional Park and the ride in the Hastings area.  Plans are to ride some in Cannon Falls area before we leave Monday.

Dam at Lock #2 on the Mississippi River

Lebanon Hills Regional Park is a nice, big rig friendly park.  Just make your reservations early or don't plan on staying over a weekend during the summer.  We made our reservations in March, so we get to stay over a weekend.  You're in the suburban Minneapolis/St Paul area when you stay here, but wouldn't know it except for the occasional airliner you see flying over.  The park came highly rated on RVParkReviews.com - that's how we found & picked it.  Verizon wireless is a little poor with data being particularly slow.

Lock #2

The twin cities area is a bicycle friendly & outdoor activity area, but we're not finding a lot of independent, stand-alone bicycle trails.  The ones we have found are excellent.  They're not rail trails or least don't seem to be.  Expect some steep inclines & descents should you choose to ride in this area.  And like most metropolitan areas, there's lots to do here.  And as an oh-by-the-way, Lebanon Hills has dirt bicycle trails.

Bluff Bridge near Schaar's Bluff

In other news, our "smart" phone continues to have issues determining where we are.  Google Maps & Google Earth don't have a problem, but the weather apps are struggling.  When set to "current location", our weather apps have given us weather for Newberry, MI (Upper Peninsula of Michigan) or Box Elder, SD (near the Black Hills area of South Dakota).  So much for "smart"...

Plans are to move near the Tomah, WI area next week.  This keeps us within reasonable commuting distance of Lacrosse, WI and bicycle trails along the Mississippi River.  At least that's what I think.  RV parks near Lacrosse weren't all that appealing, and Tomah is the next area traveling east with decent RV parks.  Keeping my fingers crossed on this one!

So that's it for us this week.  Thanks for checking in on us!  Until next week, David

Duluth, MN

Duluth Canal area

Enger Tower

Even though we weren't all that excited about leaving Two Harbors last Friday, we've had a good time back in Duluth, MN.  We're staying a little out of the way from the local hot spots & tourist areas for the 4th of July holiday.  We're at Ogston's RV Campground just off US 53 near Saginaw, MN.  If it sounds familiar, we were here a couple of weeks ago, and this is the spot where we set awaiting our site to open in Voyageurs Natl Park when we worked there back in 2012 & 2014.

On this visit we've gotten out more in the local area visiting new areas that we hadn't visited before.  So far we've visited the lake shore in Duluth (as we have in visits past), Enger Tower Park, Jay Cooke State Park, Duluth Trading Company (had to visit due to all the TV advertisements we've seen over the last couple of years), and took a tour of the Cirrus Aircraft factory.

We've pretty much been out every day since we got here.  We've had a couple thunderstorms and the ground here is saturated.  Not a lot of top soil here, so if it doesn't rain every few days it gets pretty dry.

View from Enger Tower

We've probably spent the most of our outdoors at Jay Cooke State Park.  It's a pretty area on the St Louis River and has a gorge just south of the Thomson Reservoir that gets a lot of visitor attention.   The state park is also just off the Willard Munger State Trail (paved bicycle/walking trail) that we've rode once.  We hope to go back and ride it again, tomorrow.

St Louis River, Jay Cooke State Park (River In Visitor Center)

The tour at the Cirrus Aircraft Factory came highly recommended and is definitely worth your time if you're in the area.  The tour is about an hour and a half and is given on Wednesdays (as of this posting).   No pictures allowed on the tour, but they did let me get a picture of an aircraft as it was being detailed for delivery.

Willard Munger Trail Bridge over the St Louis River Gorge

So we've had an enjoyable week.  Next stop is near St Paul, MN.  Plans are to move Monday.  We're suppose to stay in a regional park near the bicycle paths, so we're looking forward to that.  We'll see how we deal with traffic!

Thanks for dropping in and checking on us.  Until next week, David

Cirrus SR22T

St Louis River Gorge (Jay Cooke State Park